The Department provides specialist support for the Attorney-General as First Law Officer, promotes Australian legal services internationally, drafts and publishes legislative materials, and provides advice on international law.

In working to achieve this outcome, the Department is also responsible for administering payments for the provision of legal aid, family relationships services, Indigenous law and justice programs, community legal services and financial assistance towards legal costs and related expenses. The Department works in cooperation and consultation with many other organisations. These include government agencies (Commonwealth, State and Territory), advisory bodies, taskforces, professional associations and community interest groups.

During 2008–09, we made significant and substantial progress towards achieving Outcome 1, with developments being establishment of the Access to Justice Taskforce, introduction to Parliament of the Access to Justice (Civil Litigation Reforms) Amendment Bill 2009, implementation of new accreditation standards for family dispute resolution practitioners, reforms to evidence laws, introduction of an industry based assessor scheme for the classification of films, national consultation on human rights, same-sex reforms successfully passed through Parliament, reform to the native title system, and development of the National Indigenous Law and Justice Framework.

Performance reports for each output contributing to Outcome 1 are presented in this chapter.